ARP Racing Results

Jesse Hockett’s trip to California looked like it might find him heading home with 5,000 large, but it didn’t end up that way.  A rough Friday at the Trophy Cup saw him switch venues on Saturday and head to the Ventura Raceway, where it looked like the top prize would be his.  An official’s decision cost him a shot at the win, and this week he’ll tackle the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock aiming at an even bigger $15,000 prize.

Jesse paired up with Harold Main and his #35B for the prelim at Tulare Thunderbowl’s Trophy Cup for 360’s.  Mechanical problems got them off to a slow start.  “We had some fuel problems when we got to Tulare,” he says.  “We didn’t get the chance to hot lap, and we qualified really badly.  With the system they had, that put us back in the non-qualifiers.”

Despite the setback, Jesse charged and did what he could to climb through the alphabet.  “We were able to run second in the non-qualifiers, and we won the D,” says the Warsaw, Missouri driver, who has 21 wins in his pocket in 2009.  “We got into the C, and we were going pretty well.  We ended up getting crashed out by another driver and that was the end of the night.  We tore up the car.  I felt bad for Harold.  He was kind enough to give us a shot.”

The Ventura Racing Association was running for $5,000 down at the Ventura Raceway and Jesse had a connection.  “We ended up getting a ride with a friend of mine at Ventura,” he says.  “We drove for Bruce Douglas and Victor Davis.  Tommy Horne was the crew chief on it and he did a great job.  We were able to win the heat.”

Jesse worked his way by Jimmy Crawford into the lead on lap eight.  He was cruising out front ahead of Matt Mitchell when another competitor crashed on lap 20.  “We were leading the feature,” he explains.  “With ten laps to go, we were cruising, and there was a driver flipping hard.  The red light blinked on the backstretch so I shut it down and so did Matt Mitchell, who was running second.  I guess after Matt and I crossed the light it switched back to yellow, and the rest of the field kept going.”

Unbelievably, Hockett and Mitchell were sent to the back of the field and the yellow light stayed out despite the crash.  No mention of the incident was in the track’s press release.  “The guy was upside down and on fire,” says Jesse.  “They’ve been real strict about that across the rest of the country, especially after the fire (Mike Houseman Jr.) at Knoxville.  I was trying to look out for another driver’s safety, but it ended up costing me $5,000 at Ventura.  I wasn’t too happy about it.  We were really good, it was just a shame what happened there.”

It was little consolation, but Jesse charged from the tail to seventh in the final ten laps.  He is readying this week for Little Rock as both a driver and car owner.  He will drive the VKCC Motorsports/Tom Buch #13, while Californian Kyle Hirst will pilot the Jesse Hockett Racing #77 on Friday.  “We’ll run on Thursday, and then Kyle Hirst will run our car on Friday,” says Jesse.  “He’s really excited to get out here.  He was running well at Tulare until his rear axle broke, so he will be ready.  We’ve always run well at Little Rock.  It’s a fun track and a good race.  We’ll run hard and let it all hang out there!”

October 20, 2009 – The last two weeks have been time well spent in the Lone Star State for Jesse “The Rocket” Hockett.  The disappointment of a rainout in the finale at the Cowtown Nationals dampened the excitement of drawing the pole, but he bounced back last weekend at the Devil’s Bowl with a top five finish and a charge from the tail of the field with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series.  This weekend, he’ll pilot the Harold Main #35 in Tulare, California for the Trophy Cup.

Both Texas shows were to be Friday/Saturday affairs, but rain dictated both to be run on Saturday and Sunday.  On October 10, the Cowtown Nationals finally got underway south of Kennedale.  Jesse went from seventh to second in his heat race, earning a chance amongst the 71 cars assembled to draw in the first four rows of the feature.  “We had a solid night there the first night at Cowtown,” he says.  “We didn’t have that good of a draw, but we were able to move our way up through the heat.”

The Warsaw, Missouri driver drew in the fourth row for the preliminary feature event, and ended up fourth at the checkers, locking himself into Sunday’s finale.  “We had a good battle there with (Terry) McCarl for awhile, and once we got ahead of him, we were able to keep some pretty good cars behind us,” he says.  “We had a pretty good night.  It was a good feeling, because we hadn’t had much luck lately with the 360 deal, and the size of the track is similar to Little Rock.”

Luck shined on Jesse when he drew the pole for Sunday’s $8,000 to win finale, but Mother Nature put an end to it after the B main events were complete.  “We couldn’t have asked for a better redraw,” he says.  “The car felt perfect in hot laps, but there’s not much you can do about the rain.  We didn’t get the chance to go for the $8,000, but the track paid out the purse, so we couldn’t really complain.”

Last Saturday, the VKCC Motorsports/Tom Buch #13 was running well on the big ½ mile in Mesquite.  Jesse finished second in his heat after starting fourth.  “We’ve never really run the best at Devil’s Bowl,” he says.  “We have a third there, but we’ve never really been consistent.  We tried some things with the car that seemed to work for us.  We were able to move up a couple of spots in the heat.”

Jesse fell one spot short of locking himself into Sunday’s finale, as he ran fifth in the feature.  “We were able to make the redraw, but that didn’t matter much because we drew eight,” he says of his starting spot.  “We were able to move forward to fourth and ran there a long time.  Later in the race, we were held up in lapped traffic and Sam Hafertepe Jr. got by me.  That dropped us from locking in and we had to start all over the next night.”

The draw bit the Ultimate Challenge champion on Sunday.  He ran fourth in his heat after starting sixth, and fell one spot short of a transfer through the B.  “It was as good as I’ve ever been at Devil’s Bowl, but Sunday was frustrating,” he says.  “We had a tough draw and a tough heat race.  That put us in a tough B main with Tony Bruce Jr. and Jason Johnson starting on the front row.  Once they got in clean air, they were pretty much gone and we had to settle for third.”

Jesse was forced to take a provisional and started scratch on the 24-car field.  He would end up in eleventh.  “We really had a good start,” he says.  “We were up to twelfth in a hurry.  Then everyone started getting to the top side where we were running and it became a bit one-lane.  I was running with Sammy (Swindell) most of the way.  I don’t know what happened, but he took off there the last few laps and I stayed where I was at.  I guess that’s why he’s Sammy.  We settled for eleventh.  Starting 24th, that wasn’t bad.  I was looking at the guys in front of me and couldn’t find any that would be easy to pass, so we’ll take it.”

While work in the shop prepares the team for the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock at the end of the month, Jesse will head to the Trophy Cup this weekend at the Tulare Thunderbowl in California.  “We’re partnering with Harold Main again out there as a teammate to Wayne Johnson,” he says.  “The Trophy Cup should be a fun deal and I’m looking forward to it.  This week, we’re getting the #13 ready for the Short Track Nationals, and getting the (Jesse Hockett Racing) #77 ready for Kyle Hirst (from Loomis, California).  He’s coming out to the Short Track Nationals with the whole crew including Rod Tiner.  I think Kyle has proven himself to deserve a shot in this sport outside of California.”